Method for the reduction of signalling traffic on mobile devices

ABSTRACT

The present application relates to mobile devices and in particular mobile devices which allow installed applications to connect to the Internet. The application addresses the problems associated with limited battery life and network congestion by controlling access to the Internet on each mobile device. The method intercepts requests to transmit IP data from applications and then determines whether they should be granted access.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to mobile communications devices andmore specifically to transmission of data from these devices.

BACKGROUND

The development of smart phones in association with development of 3Gand 4G networks has meant that users are now able to use applications ontheir phones which access the Internet, including basic functionalitysuch as web browsing. Apart from applications which may be provided bythe manufacturer of the phone, a user may also download and installother applications, commonly referred to as “Apps”. Other applicationsprovide for social media interactions including for example FACEBOOK™and TWITTER™, navigation for example GOOGLE MAPS™, games and auctionfacilities such as eBay™.

Whilst these applications improve the user functionality on smart phone,they can lead to negative consequences on the telecommunicationsnetworks from the increase in data being transmitted.

The present application seeks to ameliorate these negative effects.

SUMMARY

Programmers of smart phone applications typically have no experience ofmobile networks or their requirements and their experience is based onconventional wired connections where the concept of always on netconnections is predominant. Accordingly, they base their mode ofoperation on this premise. This approach has negative effects on bothmobile telephone networks and individual telecommunications devices. Thepresent application provides a method which restricts the access ofapplications on mobile devices to the Internet. The resulting benefitsinclude reduced network congestion and longer battery life in smartphones.

In a first embodiment, the present application provides a method ofcontrolling access to the Internet on a mobile device. The methodcomprises the steps of receiving a request to transmit IP data from anapplication; determining if an IP connection is required to beestablished for the mobile device to transmit the IP data; and b) uponmaking a determination that an IP connection is required, determiningwhether a minimum time period has elapsed and upon determining theminimum time period has elapsed allowing said IP connection to beestablished. This minimum time period is determined from at least one ofa) the time of lapsing of the previous IP connection, and b) the lasttime the application requested an IP connection.

The minimum time period is suitably a predefined default value. Theminimum time period may be a value set for the requesting applicationwith different values set for different applications.

Individual applications may be specified to be set with a minimum periodof zero, or otherwise designated, so that access is always permitted.The user of the mobile phone may be allowed to specify the individualapplications.

The method may employ a preliminary step of determining whether theapplication is in the foreground on the device and where the applicationis determined to be in the foreground allowing the IP connection to beestablished. By foreground is meant that the application has access tothe standard i/o system of the mobile device. Having access to the i/osystem allows a user to interact with the application, for examplethrough touch events on a touch screen interface. In contrast, anapplication operating in the background does not typically allow userinteraction.

In one arrangement, if the screen of the mobile device is determined tobe switched on the IP connection may be allowed to be established.

The time of lapsing of the previous IP connection may be an estimatedvalue determined as a predetermined period from the time of the lasttransmission or reception of an IP packet, where the predetermined timeis reflective of an estimate of radio tail. Radio tail is the period forwhich an established radio connection remains after transmission of afinal packet. The method may be configured to allow an application whichis streaming audio to connect in order to maintain that stream even ifthe application is not foreground and/or the device screen is turnedoff.

A signal intervention mechanism may be provided on a mobile deviceconfigured to perform these methods. The application also extends to amobile device employing such a signal intervention mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The present application will now be described with reference to thedrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating the layers of a mobiledevice known in the art;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow chart of a method of operation of a mobiledevice known in the art;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating the positioning of asignal reduction mechanism within a device such as that shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of operation of the devicewith signal reduction mechanism installed; and

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of operation employing anapplication specific configuration.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventors of the present application have identified thatapplications (apps) frequently installed on smart phones or tablet typedevices with a mobile connection are commonly designed to connect atfrequent intervals to the internet via the mobile phone network to checkfor updated information. This constant need to ‘connect’ causes a lot ofnetwork signalling to make and break Internet connection via the Radiointerface. Having multiple applications on multiple devices all doingthis asynchronously can cause network overloads or require networkoperators to increase capacity beyond what should be required to supportthe number of devices on their networks. Moreover, it has beenidentified that the need to make and break radio connections impactssignificantly on the battery life of individual devices.

The applications typically attempt to connect regardless of whether theyare in the foreground, i.e. visible or actively in use by to the user.Moreover, it is not uncommon for an application to attempt to make aconnection when the screen is turned off and the device is unattended.Some applications allow a user to specify in their settings for thatapplication, certain parameters of the application, including forexample how often should a check be made for updates or messages.However, this does not mean that an application will not make a requestfor other data. Similarly, it will be appreciated that not allapplications provide for such user control and different applicationswill not necessarily be in sync and thus whilst notionally each of 10applications might be set to only check each 10 minutes, thatconceivably this might result in a check every minute. Moreover,providing a user with functionality to do this does not solve theproblem from a network provider's perspective. The present applicationprovides a method for limiting the access of applications on a mobiledevice to the Internet.

As shown in the simplified diagram of FIG. 1, mobile devices 1 aregenerally structured into separate layers of functionality. At thebottom, the Radio Layer 10 is responsible through the associated RFcircuitry of the mobile device for making and breaking data connectionswith a mobile telephone network or Wireless (WiFi) network asappropriate and transmitting and receiving data over these networks.

The Applications layer operates on top of the operating system (OS) ofthe mobile device, which may for example be a Java based. It is commonto allow developers to write applications for users and similarly toallow users to install these applications on the mobile device, albeitthat both processes may be subject to restrictions. The IP layer acts asthe interface between the applications and the radio layer.

A typical process which occurs in existing configurations when anapplication tries to connect 20 to the Internet is illustrated in FIG.2. The Radio Layer 22 determines whether there is a radio dataconnection established on the Radio Network. If a connection exists,then the request from the application is processed 26. If not, the RadioLayer data begins the process of establishing 24 a radio dataconnection. Once the radio data connection is established the requestfrom the Application is transmitted 26 through the radio network.

In the present application, a mechanism is installed in a mobile device30 to prevent the establishment of a radio data connection in responseto a connection request from an application unless certain requirementsare met. More particularly, the signal intervention mechanism 32 (whichis suitably installed software code) provides a gatekeeping function,which assesses each attempt by an application to connect to the networkto determine whether or not it should be permitted. The signalintervention mechanism may for example be installed by inserting acustomised queuing module into the IP routing kernel of the mobiledevices software. This customised queuing module may be installed bydefault in advance of the consumer purchasing their mobile device orinstalled later. This customised queuing module is suitably configuredto pass all outgoing packets through the signal intervention mechanismrather than directly to the outgoing interface.

Accordingly, once the customised queuing module is in place all IPtraffic is diverted to the signal intervention mechanism.

An exemplary process, shown in FIG. 4, outlines how the signalintervention mechanism 32 arrives at a decision whether to allow 52 orblock an application seeking 40 to transmit data.

The first step and primary consideration upon receipt of a request by anapplication to connect is to determine whether there is an active dataconnection to the radio network. This is achieved by monitoring outgoingpackets and marking the interface as inactive when no packets have beensent for a configurable time interval. A primary timer discussed belowis employed to determine whether the configurable time interval has beenreached. This primary timer is effectively reset whenever a packet istransmitted. It may take into consideration a predetermined time periodreflective of a radio tail, i.e. how long a connection remains in placeafter transmission of a packet.

If a data connection is active, the applications request is allowed anddata transmitted. If however there is no active data connection withradio network, a number of secondary considerations are employed todetermine whether an application should be granted access or blocked.These secondary considerations include, for example, but are not limitedto:

a) whether or not the application is in the foreground,

b) how long it has been since the device connected, and

c) how long since the particular application connected and whether ornot specific rules apply to the application.

The signal intervention mechanism employs a primary timer which is usedto measure how long it has been since the device has connected.

Additionally, the signal intervention mechanism employs a number ofsecondary timers. In one implementation, each App installed on themobile device which has an ability to connect to a network has anassociated secondary timer, which measures the time interval since theindividual App last connected.

Thus in the exemplary process of FIG. 4, a check is performed todetermine if the application making the request is foreground. Thischeck is unique to the specific application making the request. If theapplication is not foreground and another application, which isforeground, has connected then because the network connection is alreadyactive the not background application will be permitted to connect.

Alternatively, if the network connection is not active and theapplication is determined to be foreground, then the application requestis allowed. In the event that the application is not foreground, a checkis performed to determine whether the mobile device or application iswithin a block period. The check for the block period determines howlong it has been since the application or indeed the device itselfgenerally has had an active connection. If the length of time exceeds apredetermined value for a block period, the application's request isallowed. The phone may have a default block period, with individualapplications having individual block periods. In the event that there isnot a block period in effect, the application's request is allowed topass. A final check that may be performed is to determine whether anapplication is streaming, e.g. from an Internet Radio Station. Thisfinal check may be performed by monitoring the feature on the phoneresponsible for playing audio and determining whether this is active. Inthe event that the application is streaming data, the application'srequest is allowed to pass.

An advantage of this process is that by suitable configuration, it maybe employed by a mobile network operator to minimize traffic congestion.

For example, the signal intervention mechanism, once installed in aphone may retrieve settings from a network operator from a networkoperator's database. In this way, for example the network operator mayconfigure user's phones with different values for differentapplications, or indeed different users with different values.

These values may periodically be retrieved by the signal interventionmechanism from a network server and downloading settings. The defaultactions can be to control each application (other than those listed) orto not control any application other than those listed. Additionallylisted applications may be controlled for a different time period thatthe default settings.

Thus for example, different applications may be treated differentlybased on settings retrieved. An exemplary process for this is shown inFIG. 5, in which when an application attempts to create an IP connection60, a check is made of the settings retrieved from the network operatoras to whether the requesting application is required to be controlled,i.e. limited in their access. A mobile device may be configured 62 ineither a negative or positive mode. In the positive mode 64, the defaultis that all applications are controlled 68 and only where an applicationis listed in a list provided by the network server as being exempt isaccess automatically allowed 70. In the negative mode 66, the default isthat no applications are controlled and only where an application islisted in the list provided by the network operator is access controlled72. Otherwise the Application is not controlled 70.

The words comprises/comprising when used in this specification are tospecify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or componentsbut does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more otherfeatures, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of controlling access to theInternet on a mobile device, the mobile device having a radio layer andRF circuitry for making and breaking radio data connections withwireless telephone networks, the method comprising the steps of:receiving by a signal intervention mechanism a request to transmit IPdata from an application; determining if a radio data connection isrequired to be established for the mobile device to transmit the IPdata; upon making a determination that a radio data connection isrequired, determining whether a minimum time period has elapsed from atleast one of: a) the time of lapsing of the previous radio dataconnection, and b) the last time the application requested to transmitIP data, and upon determining the minimum time period has elapsedallowing said radio data connection to be established.
 2. A methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the minimum time period is a predefineddefault value.
 3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the minimumtime period is a value set for the requesting application.
 4. A methodaccording to claim 3, wherein different values are set for differentapplications.
 5. A method according to claim 4, wherein individualapplications may be specified to be set with a minimum period of zero orotherwise designated so that access is always permitted.
 6. A methodaccording to claim 5, further comprising allowing a user to specify theindividual applications.
 7. A method according to claim 1, furthercomprising a preliminary step of determining whether the application isin the foreground on the device and where the application is determinedto be in the foreground allowing the radio data connection to beestablished.
 8. A method according to claim 1, further comprisingdetermining whether the screen of the mobile device is on and where thescreen is determined to be on allowing the radio data connection to beestablished.
 9. A method according to claim 1, wherein time of lapsingof the previous radio data connection is an estimated value determinedas a predetermined period from the time of the last transmission orreception of an IP packet.
 10. A method according to claim 9, where thepredetermined period represents an estimate of radio tail.
 11. A methodaccording to claim 1, which allows an Application which is streamingaudio to connect in order to maintain that stream even if theapplication is not foreground and/or the device screen is turned off.12. A mobile device comprising a radio layer and RF circuitry for makingand breaking radio data connections with wireless telephone networks anda signal intervention mechanism for controlling access to the Internetthrough the radio layer and RF circuitry, the signal interventionmechanism being configured in response to receiving a request totransmit IP data from an application; to: determine if a radio dataconnection is required to be established for the mobile device totransmit the IP data; upon making a determination that a radio dataconnection is required, determine whether a minimum time period haselapsed from at least one of: a) the time of lapsing of the previousradio data connection, and b) the last time the application requested anradio data connection, and upon determining the minimum time period haselapsed allowing said radio data connection to be established.
 13. Amobile device according to claim 12, wherein the minimum time period isa predefined default value.
 14. A mobile device according to claim 13,wherein the minimum time period is a value set for the requestingapplication.
 15. A mobile device according to claim 14, whereindifferent values are set for different applications.
 16. A mobile deviceaccording to claim 12, wherein the signal intervention mechanism isconfigured to perform a preliminary step of determining whether theapplication is in the foreground on the device and where the applicationis determined to be in the foreground allowing the radio data connectionto be established.
 17. A mobile device according to claim 12, whereinthe signal intervention mechanism is configured to determine whether thescreen of the mobile device is on and upon making said determinationallowing the IP connection to be established.
 18. A mobile deviceaccording to claim 12, wherein time of lapsing of the previous radiodata connection is an estimated value determined as a predeterminedperiod from the time of the last transmission or reception of an IPpacket.
 19. A mobile device according to claim 18, where thepredetermined period represents an estimate of radio tail.